What's on top?

When I first plunged into full-time campaigning, I was swallowed whole. It wasn't too long before I experienced overwhelm... the compelling daily demands of recruiting, strategising, organising and reacting... I don't think I'm the only one to have had that experience!

My perspective shifted radically when I was given a book written by five Australian activists, inspired by their experiences during campaign to save the Franklin River. These campaigners - Claire, Harry, Linda, John and Gill - focused not just on the politics, strategy, tactics and ultimate success of the campaign, but also on the learning dimension. Of course! To save this precious river, ordinary people needed to learn so much, through political action. Campaigns and movements can't succeed with learning. The book had a profound impact on me and set me on a path that led to a PhD in activist education, co-founding the Change Agency and making a lifetime commitment to activist education.

In other news, we're proud to announce that we've confirmed the cohort for next year's Community Organising Fellowship: 25 campaigners and organisers from right around Australia who will come together for three residential workshops during 2018 to build their campaign strategy toolkits, learn and apply new tools and ways of thinking, and form deep connections. They'll be our fifth cohort, joining a national network of almost 100 graduates who occupy key organising roles in many of Australia's most powerful campaigns and movements. Welcome, and congratulations.

Next year's priorities include an exciting project in Indonesia where we'll be helping to create a training program for community activists and developing a new suite of training resources in both English and Bahasa Indonesian.

If this is your first tCA enews, enjoy! Be sure to share links to resources, workshops and other learning opportunities with us for the next edition. Happy times, friends, and happy campaigning.

The Campaign Strategy Guide is the first instalment of the People Power Manual, a resource created for activist educators and facilitators. Campaign strategy needn’t be mystifying, lonely or stressful. Social movements become more powerful as more people are equipped to analyse their political context, consider paths to change and mindfully plan tactics. The Campaign Strategy Guide equips activist educators to facilitate …

“In a democracy there are only two types of power. There’s organised people and organised money. Organised money only wins when people aren’t organised.” -- Benjamin Todd Jealous The Community Organising Guide is a unique resource for campaigners, community leaders and activist educators. It’s a collection of 39 process guides, 50 handouts 4 original case studies and 3 sample workshop …

Nic is a graduate of the 2014 Fellowship program and is currently NSW Community Coordinator with Lock the Gate Alliance. Why are you passionate about Community Organising? Why is organising an important part of the solution in your community? One of the great things about being part of Lock the Gate is working directly with mining-affected communities. I am lucky to have …

Great online resources

Enews subscribers regularly share with us the websites and online resources they’re developing, discovering and learning from in their community organising. Enjoy this month’s batch and be sure to drop us a line to suggest links for the next enews.

There are 140 million people engaged in social change work across the globe. These are the ChangeMakers. The ChangeMakers podcast is a weekly, half-hour globally focused series that tells stories and lessons about the world of social change. Each week, host Dr. Amanda Tattersall picks a theme, like “how to win using coalitions” or “when anger works and the power …

What sets apart good leaders from great leaders? Is it political savvy and the ability to maneuver their way to the top? Is it the number of connections they have? Is it their ability to speak well and motivate people? While all these things may be helpful to varying degrees, leadership goes much deeper than that, to the very core …

As part of the new ChangeMakers podcast, Annie Kia shares insights on the Bentley blockade where community members challenged the proposed unconventional gasfield. Bentley was an amazing uprising of people power that effectively stopped the gas industry in northern NSW. How did the campaign build? How did the approach to strategy welcome and support spontaneous community protest? Subscribe to the ChangeMakers …

People with obvious and not-so-obvious disabilities need accommodation in order to participate fully. As a presenter, you may or may not be aware of a participant's need for accommodations. In addition to accommodating the accessibility needs of participants who request them, you are urged to follow these 15 basic accessibility guidelines for every workshop activity.

With Hustle, you can have meaningful dialogue at scale. Have more conversations in less time. Personalized, one-to-one text messaging is 66x faster than phone calls, and has 3x the response rate of emails. As used in the Bernie campaign.

Erica Chenowith writes: "black bloc tactics often hurt the causes that these activists claim to be fighting for. While violent flanks have sometimes produced short-term tactical advantages, they often come with painful long-term costs for movements seeking change—and the communities they purport to represent. The historical evidence in support of this conclusion is worth considering as the Trump resistance builds. "Studies show that …

Do you want to be part of a successful effort to defeat the Trump agenda? Do you want to understand how great social movements of the past can guide the current fight? Do you want to know how to sustain the movement even in times of burnout, disillusionment, or apathy? Do you want to join a group—or form your own—and …

Re:Imagining Change provides resources, theory, hands-on tools, and illuminating case studies for the next generation of innovative change-makers. This unique book explores how culture, media, memes, and narrative intertwine with social change strategies, and offers practical methods to amplify progressive causes in the popular culture. Re:Imagining Change is an inspirational inside look at the trailblazing methodology developed by the Center for Story-based …

For many international development organisations, influencing policy is a critical means to achieve long term change. For over a decade, the Research and Policy in Development team at ODI has worked around the world to understand how to foster sustainable policy change. The result is ROMA – the RAPID Outcome Mapping Approach – a guide to understanding, engaging with and …

Working well with groups to harness the wisdom of everyone present, for the best outcome, requires more than experience in the role of running a meeting or leading a team. Development of effective communication and leadership skills, self-awareness and actively applying compassion are all required for to be a good facilitator. The most practical and comprehensive facilitation qualification available in Australia, …

OrganiseUs Digital Intensive is our flagship annual five-day intensive training program in digital organising skills. It's on February 26-2 March, 2018, at the fabulous Canva headquarters, Surry Hills, Sydney. Not in Sydney? Check out our Digital Intensive Melbourne! Come and spend five days learning with the best digital strategists, campaigners and organisers from across Australia, the US and UK. It's for early-career …

OrganiseUs Digital Intensive is our flagship annual five-day intensive training program in digital organising skills. It's on March 5-9, 2018, at the Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne. Not in Melbourne? Check out our Digital Intensive Sydney! Come and spend five days learning with the best digital strategists, campaigners and organisers from across Australia, the US and UK. It's for early-career campaigners, or campaigners with …